Hollow Knight: Grimm Heart (Old Version)
by TheSaltiestTuna
Summary: After the knight had destroyed the Radiance, it decided that it didn't want to explore the world alone anymore. Now together with its siblings, they'll go on a new adventure and make new friends and enemies along the way. From fighting monsters of darkness, finding strange relics, and befriending new friends, the knight's family is in for a bumpy ride.
1. Chapter 1: The Family Bound By Void

**Chapter 1: The Family Bound By Void**

* * *

It was long until its new body burst out of the Godseeker, it's long void tentacles were bursting out of any opening it could find. The knight's shell was just within arm's reach and it desperately tried to fit itself inside the tiny shell. Somehow, by some miracle, it was able to fit its entire body into the shell. But as it tried to take one step, it's shell began to crack. Void began seeping through the cracks and the tiny knight felt a sense of urgency. It didn't want _that thing _bursting out of it and hurting all the bugs it had met on the way. It began running far away from the Junk Pit. It needed a safe place to unleash _this thing _and it knew exactly where to do it.

_**...**_

It remembers back to when it finally found all three dreamers and it was on its way to the Temple Of The Black Egg. It had finally made peace with its siblings and the Void itself. It had explored almost every nook and cranny in this entire dead kingdom and it thought it was ready. But as it stood outside the infected temple, the source of all the infection, it felt something. It hesitated to walk inside the infected temple. Then it simply ran away from the area. It couldn't do it. I mean, how could it? He just felt something right then and there, the knight couldn't save this kingdom as much as it wanted to.

Want. It wanted to save this kingdom. That was when the knight realized it truly couldn't. This desire. It would doom them all. The knight knew this because it already happened before. Back when the knight first tried to escape the Abyss, it saw it's older sibling's spark when they first saw each other. Then the knight remembered that it felt emotion, way before it even crawled out of the abyss and entered Hallownest.

Anger. Dread. And sorrow. Anger over their heartless father. The dread of what would become of its sibling. And sorrow that it knew its sibling wouldn't live up with their father's impossible expectations. The knight didn't realize this before, but it first got to Hallownest, it knew that it felt emotion. It felt emotions it couldn't describe. Emotions it couldn't express. Emotions it couldn't show. If you were there with the knight as it explored the old ruins of Hallownest, you would know what it had felt.

Wonder, as it explored the beautiful ruins of Hallownest. Curiosity, as it explored its depths and secrets. Fear, as it anticipated for the next scary monster that would pop out. Accomplishment, as it defeated truly terrifying and difficult opponents. Sadness, as it once again explored the graveyard of its discarded siblings. And finally, hope, as it spoke and bonded with the few friendly faces spread across Hallownest.

The knight knew that it couldn't take on the mantle of Hollow Knight. It knew wasn't hollow, far from it. It would simply doom itself a life of isolation and loneliness until the Infection would inevitably burst out of him. So it ran. Even if the knight could contain the Infection, it didn't want to. It realized that it wanted to keep exploring Hallownest and maybe the kingdoms beyond Hallownest, but it couldn't. But as the knight walked familiar paths, it knew it had done all it could. The knight constantly tried to find excuses for itself to keep exploring. It simply couldn't however.

It knew couldn't run away from this forever, but it desperately tried to find new areas to explore. But as it explored the Royal Waterways, it found a strange new area it had never seen before. It was filled with mountains of junk and trash. How did the knight miss this?! But it happily began to explore the newly dubbed _Junk Pit_.

There wasn't much, but there was a strangely large cocoon in the Junk Pit. The knight didn't know what it was, but it saw a simple lock wrapped around the cocoon and it knew it had to find another key for this. It explored Hallownest, its entire layout remembered by heart, and it leads to him going back to the Coliseum of Fools. Again, there was a whole new area that the knight never knew about but would happily take the chance to explore. It eventually got a simple key from a strange fanatic bug that seemed to have gone insane without the Infection's help.

Eventually, it went back to the Junk Pit and unlocked the cocoon and it revealed a very large bug. It was still alive and the knight wondered what would happen if it hit the bug with its Dream Nail. What happened next would change the knight's life and maybe the entirety of Hallownest forever.

The knight was transported to a strange new realm called Godhome and it was there when the knight faced its greatest challenge yet. The knight was put through a deadly trial where it would fight the Gods Of Hallownest, most of which wore familiar faces. Pantheon after pantheon, the knight valiantly fought and attuned with the gods. It had died dozens of deaths as it fought through the pantheons with bindings that made the knight feel like the bug it truly is. After the knight thought he had finally defeated the fourth pantheon, the true and final pantheon revealed itself to the weary knight.

It didn't know if it can handle it anymore, but it wanted closure and so it fought the fifth and final pantheon of Hallownest. There, it had fought every single god it had ever fought. With no charms, it's nail severely weakened, it's shell ever so delicate, and capacity for soul reduced. It had died dozens of more deaths, each one getting further and further into the pantheon, only to be struck back down to the start.

The knight wanted to give up. It wanted to leave Godhome. But didn't have anything else left to do besides going back to that cursed temple. So it kept fighting. Over and over, he had attempted to fight the fifth pantheon. When it finally reached to its elder sibling, the knight defeated the Pure Vessel and it had thought it defeated the pantheon. All its hard work had finally paid off. Or so had it thought.

The knight had a vision, a vision that involved the knight, the Pure Vessel, and their siblings. It was confused to what this vision meant, but it felt a form of kinship and comradery until they were all blinded by a bright light. A thundering screech roared throughout the vision before they were all consumed by darkness and a new guttural roar overpowered the screech.

That was when the knight was transported into a strange new room it had never seen. The light that illuminated Godhome could be seen by the knight. It was blindingly bright, but the knight could see the bright orb form wings. Then suddenly a large bug appeared in front of the knight. It appeared vaguely similar to the Seer. With a loud and mighty roar, the large bug began to attack and the knight was in the fight of its life.

_**The Absolute Radiance, Forgotten God Of Light**_

The knight wasn't prepared for this, but it quickly drew its nail and began fighting this new foe. It had never seen such a powerful foe before. This god was unrelenting, merciless, and above all, angry. The knight could barely keep with this god's attacks and it quickly fell to the god's light.

What was that? Why is it so powerful? Why did its presence feel so familiar? These were questions the knight was asking itself when it woke back up. Instead of feeling frustration or anger, it felt curiosity. The knight wanted to know what that god was. In all its time exploring Hallownest, it never encountered this being before.

It's newly invigorated curiosity soon drove the knight to challenge the pantheon with gusto. It soon began fighting the pantheon and because of all its practice, it was able to get to the last god of the pantheon quicker and quicker. After only five failures, the knight had finally triumphed over this god. But something strange happened. Instead of returning to Godhome, its shell shattered into pieces and the knight's shade was soon absorbed into a growing ocean of Void.

The mass was shapeless, without form or posture. But when the knight's shade was absorbed into the Void, it was given form. The form was given focus. All of a sudden, everything was finally clear to the knight. This god. This... monster. This was the reason why Hallownest had fallen. It was the source of the Infection and the sole reason why knight was created in the first place. The all-powerful god whose bright light was overtaken by a more paler one.

This god was now trembling in fear in the Shade Lord's hands, like a doll in the hands of a child. Guided by an unrelenting fury, the Shade Lord began tearing through the forgotten god. Essence began pouring out of the god as it screamed out in pain. With one last slash, the light was snuffed out and the Void began to leak and spread throughout Godhome. All of the Godseekers of Godhome was finally attuned with the God Of Gods.

_**...**_

Now in the present, the knight was running as fast as it could to the Abyss. With every new area it had entered, the cracks in its shells have been getting bigger and bigger by the minute. But as it ran, it passed by the bugs it has been fighting during its time in Hallownest. Their eyes weren't glowing a sickly orange, the bugs weren't aggressive, and they have seemed to regain their minds. The knight paid them no mind, but it was glad it didn't have to waste any time fighting them.

The knight eventually got to the entrance of the Abyss and at this point, the knight's shell was almost nonexistent. Void tendrils were constantly bursting out of any opening they could find and the knight's shade was desperately trying to claw its way out. When the knight finally got into the Abyss, the knight finally let its shade go free and the knight's shell finally shattered. The giant shade was now roaming the Abyss and it was finally free. But now, it doesn't know what it will do next. As the shade looked at the Abyss, it saw its siblings broken shells lying all across the bottom of the Abyss. Then it finally knew what needed to be done.

The Shade Lord picked up a handful of the broken shells and began to repair them. One by one, each shell was fixed and as pristine as the day it was made. The Shade Lord focused its large pools of its soul into repairing as many shells it can. The Shade Lord wanted to give back the lives that were wrongfully cut short. It wanted its siblings to be finally able to live their lives as they want. As hours passed, the Shade Lord was beginning to shrink as it allowed the shades forming its large body to be free and live their own lives as their separate entity.

Soon, an entire village of vessels was reborn into new bodies. The Shade Lord was know reduced to the size of a normal shade. The great powers it may had was now gone, but the shade was content with this. Soon, the new shade entered the last pristine shell and it too joined the rank of its siblings. The floor was no longer littered with the shells of its siblings. For the first time, they can all see the bottom of the Abyss. It was happy to see its siblings wander around in their new bodies and the Shade Lord felt a sense of satisfaction when it did.

The knight realized that its siblings didn't know where to go and had no guide into this world. So, the knight decided to guide them throughout Hallownest and let them feel the same wonders that the knight had felt during its journey in Hallownest. But the knight realized that its siblings don't have the equipment and powers they need to properly traverse Hallownest. They couldn't climb walls, they didn't have wings to help them reach higher places, they didn't have weapons to defend themselves from the local wildlife.

The knight knew this would be hard to help its siblings traverse Hallownest, but the knight was happy to pass on its knowledge to its siblings. There were many vessels who wanted to make a life for themselves here in the Abyss. These were the older vessels that have been here all their life and were either too scared or content with living here. The knight respected their decision and left them there. Soon, for the next few hours, the army of vessels traveled Hallownest with the knight as their guide. Some vessels decided to stay in some areas that they liked and would want to live there.

As the army of vessels traveled, they were getting smaller and smaller as they ascended Hallownest. The knight didn't want to force the vessels to go where they didn't want to and politely said goodbye to them. Area by area, Hallownest was more lively as the vessels decided to stay.

_**...**_

More time had passed and the family of 10,000 vessels was reduced to 700 by the time they've gotten near the surface. They had explored as much of Hallownest they could. The Forgotten Crossroads were restored and were no longer infected, the knight had learned its siblings had all the upgraded Void spells and abilities the knight had learned, and there was only one thing the knight wanted to do before going back to the surface.

The knight decided it wanted to go alone for this one and it traveled to the Temple Of The Black Egg. It was no longer covered with the glowing orange bubbles of the Infection. The Black Egg was open and the knight went inside of it. The knight walked a long and dark hallway and there was a room at the end of it. The knight entered the room and it saw its elder sibling bounded by chains. It was no longer covered in the Infection and it looked at the knight with curiosity as the knight explored the room.

The knight decided to free its elder sibling from its bondage. When all the chains were destroyed, the knight bravely walked up to the Hollow Knight and put its tiny arm on its sibling's cracked shell. The knight began to focus it soul and began repairing the Hollow Knight's shell. When the shell was fixed, the knight and the Hollow Knight looked at each other in silence. Then a quiet child-like voice began to speak

_"Brother."_

The Hollow Knight reeled back from the knight and drew its weapon. The knight didn't flinch and stood its ground.

_"Everything is going to be okay, brother. You don't have to suppress your emotions anymore. You're free now."_

The Hollow Knight was confused, but it quickly told itself not to feel anything. That was its mission. The knight felt was the Hollow Knight was feeling. It understands the struggles it had gone through and without hesitation, the knight hugged its elder sibling.

_"Don't worry. Your job is done. You don't need to stop telling yourself not to feel anymore."_

The knight then touched the Hollow Knight's shell and began to show the Hollow Knight the destruction of the Radiance that had caused this Infection. The knight had learned that it shared the minds of all Void entities and thanks to its Void Heart, can speak with any Void creatures at will.

It was safe to say the Hollow Knight was stunned to see the Radiance be destroyed. For decades, the Radiance and the Hollow Knight fought with each other in the Dream World and when the Radiance finally got the better of the Hollow Knight, its influence began leaking out into Hallownest. To see the Radiance being physically destroyed made the Hollow Knight elated.

Unfortunately, it doesn't know how to express those emotions. For so long, it had told itself to never think, to never feel, to never hope. But these very thoughts are what doomed Hallownest in the first place. This was how the Radiance was able to slowly break the Hollow Knight during its slumber.

But now? It can finally let go of those thoughts. But it doesn't know how to.

_"Don't worry, we'll go through this together. I and many others are going through the same things we're going through."_

The Hollow Knight felt more at ease and the Hollow Knight soon hugged its younger sibling back. Soon, both of the knights walked out of the temple and they saw Hornet standing right in front of the entrance of the egg. Both the Hollow Knight and Hornet drew their weapons, but the knight was able to calm them down by going between them and telling its elder sibling that Hornet is one of their siblings.

The Hollow Knight lowered its weapon but was ready to fight at a moment's notice. Hornet was still at unease, but also lowered her weapon.

"I had never thought that this Infection would die out so quickly. I was on my way to the temple when bugs everywhere were slowly regaining their minds. Everyone was confused and somewhat scared. When I did get to the temple, I saw that the Infection was completely gone. I know you did something little ghost."

The knight didn't know how to tell Hornet since it didn't have a voice, but Hornet simply says, "It doesn't matter how you did it, the Infection seems to have been destroyed and it seems that Hallownest's _protector _isn't infected anymore. Plus, I've seen the others on my way here."

The knight was a little worried and pulled out its nail. If Hornet had killed them, then the knight would avenge its fallen siblings.

"Do not worry about them. I've left them alone for now. Plus, I don't think I can handle that many opponents alone. The long night may be finally over, but there are many things I must do now. Many bugs have regained their minds and with our siblings populating Hallownest, they'll need some guidance to settle in their new lives. I will leave you and your family alone to your devices. Farewell, little ghost, you've done more for this kingdom than I ever could."

With that, Hornet quickly left and disappeared. Both of the knights looked at each other and the knight said to its elder sibling, _"Let us ascend to the surface brother. The rest await our arrival."_

The Hollow Knight nodded and they began making their way back to the surface. When they climbed the chain leading up to Dirtmouth, the entire sky was blue and bright, the same bright orb that shined back in Godhome was back. Just outside the well, both knights saw their siblings hanging out in Dirtmouth, exploring the tiny hovel at their discretion. The Hollow Knight also decided to wander around the village and meet some of the locals.

Elderbug didn't seem to mind the company and when the knight walked up to Elderbug, the elderly bug said, "Oh it's you again and it seems you've brought company. Friends of yours I assume?"

The knight nodded.

Elderbug sighed and said, "I've never seen Dirtmouth this lively in ages. You're quite the interesting little bug, aren't you? It has been quite the night, hasn't it? I never expected something like this to happen, not by my life. When you first entered Dirtmouth, I didn't think you were going to come back out of those wretched ruins. Then- Oh, sorry about that. You probably don't want to listen to an old bug ramble. If you need a place to rest, you're free to use any of the empty houses here. Your friends are more than welcomed to join as well."

The knight once again nodded and bowed to Elderbug.

"Ah, so polite. So are you planning back on heading to Hallownest again?"

The knight was silently thinking about it and it finally found its answer. The knight shook his head.

"Oh, now that's surprising. Looking to see the rest of the world eh? Just be careful, dark heartless beasts wander the wilds and will destroy anything breathing. I'm sure you'll have no problem dealing with them though. You survived an entire night down in Hallownest and a few mindless beasts surely won't stop you, now would they?"

The knight nodded once again.

"Well, safe travels and all that. Stay safe out there child, I feel like there's a lot more than ruined kingdoms and monsters out there."

The knight nodded and bowed to Elderbug before leaving to Cornifer's map shop. The knight saw a couple of its siblings inside the shop, exploring and browsing the shop. Cornifer was still loudly snoring in his bed and Iselda looked pretty tired.

"Oh, more customers. Listen, I'm going to close the shop soon and get to sleep. Need anything before I close up?"

The knight was thinking about it and looked at the shelves behind Iselda. It looked like there were more blank maps and the knight pointed at them.

Iselda soon asked, "You want these _blank _charts? Hmm..." Iselda was thinking if she should sell her husband's blank charts. After thinking about it, she decided to sell them to the tiny bug. She'll get to spend more time with her husband if she does."

"I'll sell all five of these charts for 250 geo. Trust me, you're doing me a favor by doing this. I don't need Corny getting himself hurt down there."

The knight agreed to pay for them and now had five blank maps. The knight bowed to Iselda and she waved the knight goodbye. The knight also told its siblings to leave the shop and they complied.

The knight gathered its siblings and they were congregating at the center of town. The knight soon asked all of them, _"Which one of you wants to stay here in Dirtmouth? I don't want to force anyone who wants to stay at Dirtmouth to leave."_

A few of the knight's siblings rose their hands and the knight nodded to them and motioned that they can leave. The siblings who wanted to stay separated from the group and waved goodbye to the others. The rest of the siblings began to leave Dirtmouth and get to the top of the Howling Cliffs. The Hollow Knight could easily scale the cliff without the use of a Mantis Claw and some of its younger siblings climbed on the Hollow Knight's back.

Eventually, they all reached the edge of the Howling Cliffs. Ironically, the cliffs were nearly dead silent and the strong winds that prevented the knight from leaving died down completely. Finally, they all left their dead home and were going on new adventures in the vast world outside of Hallownest.

* * *

**Population Of The Hollow Tribe: 650**

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey there and thanks for reading to the end of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed this story and now the knight is going on an adventure with its siblings. I wanted to give the knight's story a happy ending and this is what I thought would work best and I hope you like the ending I gave to the knight's story. Anyway, I'm going to give the vessels names in the next chapter since I don't want to keep on referring to the player character as ****_'the knight' _****any longer than I have to.**

**Before I end this author's note, I have a quick question: What would be a good name for ****_The _****Hollow Knight?**

**Tell me how I can improve this chapter and give me suggestions on how this story will go. That's all for now, I'll see you next time I update this chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Whispering Woods

**Chapter 2: The Whispering Woods**

* * *

The small band of vessels had finally reached the first area outside the borders of Hallownest. By now, the vessels have already given each other names so they can identify each other easier. The knight's name was now Ghost and while the others were thinking about names to give each other, Ghost and a few other vessels spread out through the forest to explore. Ghost had realized that even though the shades are in their shells, Ghost realized that it can see what its other siblings are doing and can even take control of their actions. Ghost decided it would be best to not use its power to control its siblings, but it was handy to see what the others were doing while they were separated.

Ghost was walking around the forest, taking in the beautiful scenery. Ghost had never seen a forest before and it looked in awe as dozens upon dozens of trees towered over Ghost. As the vessel explored the forest, it saw a tree with a strange bright red fruit growing on it. Ghost decided to investigate this strange object and was examining the fruit. It looked like something a bug would eat, but without a mouth, it, unfortunately, could not it eat. Suddenly, it had an idea. It decided to focus on the fruit like it does when it absorbs soul from its enemies. It focused hard on the red round fruit and eventually, it worked!

At first, Ghost absorbed the entire fruit, it hated the taste of it. But Ghost was the type of creature to give things a second chance and it absorbed small portions of the fruit at a time. When it did, the red fruit was delicious. It had a bittersweet taste to it, but the sweet flavor vastly overpowered the bitterness though. Plus, this gave Ghost a little bit of soul too. Ghost began to pick more of these fruits from the tree and began absorbing them to fill up his soul vessels to the max. Ghost was relaxing under the shade of a tree, eating fruits, and drawing on its empty map. For some reason, Ghost was feeling uncharacteristically lazy and decided to see what its other siblings were up to.

A vessel that was named Shadow was fighting some of the local wildlife. Shadow seemed to like fighting these creatures and was very aggressive, even seeking out fights when it didn't need to. A vessel that called itself Zion was with a small group of its siblings and were socializing with each other. Ghost was able to listen in on the conversation and it seems they were just talking about how nice the outside looked like and how the Abyss was nothing like this. Ghost was happy to hear that some of its siblings were enjoying the world outside of the Abyss.

The next sight was interesting, to say the least. Ghost was looking in the eyes of its eldest sibling, the Hollow Knight. The vessels haven't come up with a name for the Hollow Knight and it simply wandered off when Ghost said it was okay for them to explore the forest on their leisure. The Hollow Knight was fighting strange beasts that looked nothing like the ones the other siblings encountered. They had pitch black fur, white chitin-like armor, and savagery that not even the most insane infected bug could match. The Hollow Knight was also holding another creature on its shoulders, keeping it safe from the monsters that tried attacking it.

The monsters themselves don't seem to target the Hollow Knight itself, rather, they were attacking the creature the Hollow Knight was protecting. Ghost could see a few landmarks that were close by that Ghost had marked on its map that it has been drawing. Ghost could see itself through the eyes of the Hollow Knight in the distance. Not wanting to see its elder sibling hurt and wanting to see why the Hollow Knight was protecting this creature, Ghost drew its nail and began to go towards the monsters its sibling was fighting.

Ghost entered the fray by shooting out a concentrated blast of soul at one of the monsters. One of the monsters quickly fell and disintegrated into nothingness. Three other monsters noticed Ghost and began snarling at the vessel. Then with a mighty roar, they all began charging at Ghost, bearing their large and sharp claws at the tiny knight.

The three monsters began flanking Ghost on all sides and Ghost began to charge up a Cyclone Slash. At the right moment, Ghost was spinning around at top speeds and was like a blender of death. The monsters didn't react in time and were turned into nothing but dust when Ghost was finished.

Meanwhile, on the Hollow Knight's side of the battle, it saw its sibling take on three of the monsters and give the Hollow Knight some breathing room. Only three more monsters left to handle. The Hollow Knight saw that it was safe enough to put down the wounded creature it found and gently set them on the ground. The monsters were staring at the delicious helpless creature be set down by their opponent and saw this as an opening to finally land a killing blow on their prey.

The Hollow Knight wouldn't allow for this and moved faster than the eye can see. Like it was it teleportation, the Hollow Knight went behind on of the monsters and stabbed it through the back with its nail, piercing through it snow-white armor.

The eldest sibling then quickly decapitated the second monster with ease. The Hollow Knight was looking for the last monster and saw that it snuck behind the Hollow Knight's back to kill its prey. The Hollow Knight soon summoned one of its daggers and threw it straight into the monster's head, instantly killing it.

With all the monsters dead, both Ghost and the Hollow Knight began walking towards the strange creature that it was protecting. Ghost decided to ask the Hollow Knight what this was.

_"Brother, what is this creature? Why were you protecting it from those monsters?"_

The Hollow Knight still doesn't know how to speak, so it simply shrugged its shoulders. Even the Hollow Knight didn't know why it was protecting this creature.

Ghost simply nodded back and was examining the creature. It had rosy white skin, short brown hair, and had strang animal-like ears on its head. Its skin was soft and Ghost could feel the entirety of its soul emanating all over its body. Ghost could feel that if it even hit it once with the Dream Nail, all its soul vessels would be overflowing with this creature's soul. It didn't want to risk stealing the creature's lifeforce and didn't use the Dream Nail to listen to its thoughts.

Ghost was able to call some of its siblings to their location and a few of them came. Its siblings were also very curious to see such a creature and were examining it closely. Others were more interested in the creature's strange bladed weapon and began to dismantle to see what it was.

After a few minutes, the creature's body began to shift and the vessels began running away from it. The vessels who were dismantling the weapon also ran away, dropping all of the small pieces as they did. Ghost and the Hollow Knight stayed to see this creature awaken. The creature's eyes slowly began to open and the creature shot right back up in surprise when it saw Ghost staring at it.

_**...**_

Shelly wasn't having the best of times today. She was just off to do some exploring the woods and just relax under her favorite tree. But nope! This just had to be the day she was brave enough to go deeper into the forest. Shelly knew there were grimm lurking out in the forest, but she wasn't expecting beowolves to attack the moment she stepped into _The Deep_.

The beowolves were constantly clawing at her every moment they had and she only escaped due to her blinding semblance. It only seemed to stun the grimm for a few seconds before wearing off. Shelly knew the fundamentals of aura and knew she was near the red zone. Her aura instructor would probably get pissed, but her semblance is practically the sole reason why she's alive.

Shelly was able to kill a few of the more heavily armored beowolves but killing them expended almost all her ammo. Now she was running deeper into the forest with low ammo, her aura running out, and she almost out of breath. Shelly began to feel dread and hopelessness as she ran from her pursuers. That only seemed to motivate the beowolves even more now.

It was over, she was dead. She didn't even get her acceptance letter from Beacon yet, so what was the point. Nobody from her town even liked her, maybe she was better off- No dammit! Don't think like that! Shelly quickly banished those negative thoughts from her head, but she wasn't looking at where she was going and ran into something.

Shelly thought it was just a tree and she was being an idiot, but nope. When looked up at what she bumped into, she saw the soulless eyes of a strange grimm she had never learned about in her classes. It towered over her and was wielding an elegant weapon that showing its old age. It stepped closer to her and that was when her whole world went dark.

_**...**_

The creature darted right back up and yelled out, "Grimm!"

Ghost looked at the creature in confusion. Grimm? As in, Troupe Master Grimm? Was she also doing the Nightmare Ritual? That was strange, Grimmchild hasn't even grown up yet. How does she know about Grimm? Ghost decided to summon Grimmchild and show it to the creature. When Ghost did, the confused vessel was only met with more questions.

"Shit, there's more of them! Where's my weapon?!" The creature yelled out as she was looking around for her weapon. The creature's eyes soon opened wide in surprise when she saw her only line of defense completely dismantled.

"Nonononononono!" The creature yelled as it desperately tried to assemble its weapon. Ghost wanted to say sorry, but it had no mouth or voice. Ghost was watching the strange creature put back its weapon together and the creature looked at Ghost in a confused manner.

The creature stopped assembling her weapon and was looking at Ghost. "Wait, are you even a grimm?"

Grimmchild was mewing loudly as if to say, "Yes I am! Fear me, mortal!" Then Grimmchild spits a fireball from its mouth to show dominance over the meek creature, but it missed by a large margin. Mostly due to Ghost aiming Grimmchild away from the creature. After quickly scolding Grimmchild, it offered one of the red fruits to the creature as an apology.

"An... apple? Is this for me?"

Ghost nodded.

"Oh. Thank you then."

The creature took the apple from Ghost and began eating it. At least Ghost knows what these things were now. As Ghost watches the creature eat, the Hollow Knight taps Ghost on the shoulder and points to something. Ghost could see in the distance that there were more of the monsters they've been fighting. Both vessels took out their nails and the creature looked confused until she saw the monsters in the distance. It began to quickly reassemble its weapon and both vessels ran towards the monsters.

The Hollow Knight, fast as it is, got to the monster horde much faster than Ghost did. It dropped from above and stabbed into the ground. Ghost saw what the Hollow Knight was doing thanks to all its time fighting the Pure Vessel and ran away from the glowing circles on the ground. Just as Ghost got away, a forest of blades rose up from the ground and impaled four of the ten monsters, their bodies quickly turning to ash.

While its older sibling took care of the monsters attacking head-on, Ghost saw three of monsters flanking behind them to attack the creature. It wasn't done assembling its weapon yet, but Ghost used its Crystal Heart to quicky fly towards one of the monsters. It charged a Dash Slash for the unfortunate monster that would be on the receiving end.

The creature was nearly done assembling its weapon, but it was too slow when one of the monsters raised its large claws at it, ready for the kill. Fortunately, Ghost flew in at just the right time and drove its nail right into the heart of the monster. Ghost quickly charged up a Great Slash and instantly killed the second monster. The third monster was missing and Ghost was constantly looking for it.

The creature had finished assembling its weapon and was also looking for the monster as it loaded a large bright red cylinder into its weapon. Then out of nowhere, the last monster ambushed them, but the creature was able to react quickly enough and fire off the cylinder right at the monster's face. There was a loud _KABOOM _and the monster was nothing but dust.

Back with the Hollow Knight, it was having the easiest time of its life. These monsters were savage, yet predictable in their movement. The Hollow Knight was amused by this and kept taunting them by casually dodging their attacks. Eventually, the Hollow Knight got bored and decided to kill the three monsters that its been toying with.

The first monster was cut clean in half with one smooth swipe from its nail. The second had multiple daggers thrown into its chest like a pin cushion. The last exploded into smithereens as the Hollow Knight focused its energy onto the monster.

With all the monsters dead, all three of them breathed a sigh of relief (actually just one of them, the other two can't talk) and began to relax. The creature sat back down on the ground and said to Ghost, "Thanks for the save buddy. Man, I wasn't expecting to be fighting this many grimm today. Well, I just killed one, but I've seen so many grimm in one place though."

Ghost nodded and offered another apple to the creature.

The creature shook its head and said, "No thanks, I'm good. Thanks though, 'preciate the gesture."

Ghost nodded and decided to eat the apple. It liked these apples for some reason.

The Hollow Knight decided to do some more exploring and left the two of them alone. There was an awkward silence between the two of them. One of which can't speak, while the other doesn't even know where to begin.

"Soooooo... you new around here? A bunch of newly graduated huntsmen usually frequent these parts and I don't think they've ever talked about you guys before."

Ghost nodded.

"You like apples, huh? Me too, but I like the things you make with them more. Ever had apple pie?"

Ghost shook its head, but now it was intrigued.

"Oh god, what would my classmates say about me now?" The creature chuckled to itself, "The girl nobody wants to be friends with is talking to a grimm. Are you even a grimm? You don't look like one- I mean, you do, but you feel like one- but... I'll just shut up now."

The creature was blushing in embarrassment and covered its face with its hands. Ghost decided to leave it alone and its attention was soon caught by its nail.

Ahh, the Pure Nail. Cost a heck of a lot of geo and pale ore to get this forged, but it was worth it. The Pure Nail is as beautiful as it is dangerous. But the Pure Nail's intricate design was covered in something. It looked like a black liquidy ooze that Ghost absorbed when it touched it.

Suddenly, Ghost was feeling strange emotions right now. Ones of hatred for anything that breathed and hunger that can't be sated by meager fruits. It looked at the pitiful creature and didn't see it as the nervous and socially awkward thing it was. Ghost saw it as something to maim. Just one hit with the Dream Nail and the creature's soul would be completely absorbed.

_"No! What am I thinking?" _Ghost thought to itself. It didn't want to hurt this creature, it didn't want to hurt anyone! But its ravenous voice began to get louder and louder. It got to the point where Ghost couldn't handle it and it let out a loud and high-pitched screech.

The creature was startled by the loud noise and covered its ears in pain. The voice in Ghost's head soon went away and all thoughts of hurting the creature were banished completely. Ghost didn't know what this was, but it knew it had something to do with the black ooze on its nail. It wasn't Void, that much was certain.

"Holy crap! What was that?!"

That's what Ghost wanted to know. Ghost simply shrugged and the creature replied with, "Please don't do that again."

Ghost nodded its head and sat back down. As it wondered what that black ooze was, the creature interrupted its musings by asking Ghost a question, "So, you think you can come with me? I... don't want to attract any more grimm and it looks like you're way more capable than me."

Ghost thought about it and it nodded its head. "Great! Thanks for doing this for me. Name's Shelly, and thanks for saving my butt back there."

Ghost nodded and both of them stood up and got their weapons. Ghost was quickly looking through what its siblings were doing and it looks like they haven't attracted any of those monsters yet. Hell, Ghost even saw some of its siblings right next to some of these monsters and they weren't attacking them. Strange. It decided it would think about this some other time.

Soon, both Ghost and Shelly began walking out of the forest together, not knowing what will happen now.

**_A few hours later..._**

Ghost's and Shelly's trip back to town was pretty uneventful all things consider. The sun was now setting and the sky was slowly turned from a light blue sky to a more ominous orange. Kinda reminded Ghost of the Infection. That wasn't a good thing. The duo was now walking on a dirt road and began getting closer and closer to civilization. Soon, Ghost and Shelly were just outside the town's gates with a couple of guards standing in front of it.

Before they continued, Shelly said to Ghost, "Wait, I don't want people thinking you're a grimm. You should hide in my backpack until we get into my house. Okay?"

Ghost was confused but nodded. It didn't want to hurt people if it didn't need to, but being restricted into the confines of a backpack wasn't too pleasing. Shelly took off her backpack and opened it, allowing Ghost to get inside. Shelly's backpack was surprisingly big, but it was kind cramp inside with all of Shelly's belongings inside.

"Oh, and don't mess with those grenades. I prefer not to explode and I have a feeling you don't either."

Ghost remembers all the exploding bugs and oomas Ghost had to carefully weave through and agreed with that notion. It didn't back Shelly's backpack any less cramp though.

After fitting inside the backpack, Shelly began walking towards the gates of the town, her face grimacing as she recognized who was on guard duty this afternoon. One of the locals of town, Levi Butcher, a known bigot in town and its always a surprise to Shelly whenever she sees that Levi still has his job. You know, you'd think that people who become enforcers of justice and the law would be more open-minded to other people and races, treat others equally and uphold the law no matter what, but nope! Shelly just hopes that she'll be accepted into Beacon so she wouldn't have to deal with these bigots anymore.

Shelly sighed and braced herself in anticipation of what this guy has to say. She mostly just tuned him out until one of the faunus guards caught wind of Levi's nonsense and told him to cut it off. Shelly was soon given entrance, but she felt kind of guilty since the faunus guard soon became a target of Levi's slurs.

Shelly was greeted by one of the few friends she has and asked where's Shelly been all day. Shelly lied and just said that she was just relaxing in the forest, to which her friend responds with, "You're to get jumped by grimm one of these days, you know that right?"

Shelly nervously chuckled and told her friend not to worry about it. They soon exchanged goodbyes and Shelly went straight back to her house. Shelly unlocked the doors to her house and saw that the house was empty. She soon put her backpack down and let Ghost out. Ghost eagerly jumped out of the backpack and was looking around the house.

"Thanks for coming with me and getting me back home. Do you still have some of those apples with you? I want to do something with them."

Ghost nodded and took out five apples and set it on the counter.

"Cool, I'll bake some of that apple pie I was talking about. Consider it as a thank you for protecting me. You'll just have to wait for a while though. You can walk around the house if you want, just don't go outside or else people will see you, okay?"

Ghost nodded and it wasn't just going to wait around the house. When Shelly turned her attention to baking some apple pie, Ghost was able to sneak out of Shelly's home from a window and was exploring the town. Ghost stayed away from open areas since there were still a lot of people walking around town. It was a lot more lively than Dirtmouth, but those weren't high standards.

This town was colorful and vibrant, with all sorts of people wearing such bold and bright colors. This greatly contrasted Hallownest with its drab and cool colors. It kinda enjoyed the sights and wanted to meet some of the people, but doesn't want to risk a fight if what Shelly said was true.

It's curiosity soon got the better of it however and it entered a strange place that was named _The Beard And Barrel Bar_. It silently entered the area and was sneaking around people that were carrying weapons. Almost everyone had rosy skin and were loud and sometimes obnoxious. It also seems that they don't notice Ghost wandering under the tables. As Ghost was dodging the stomping feet of these loud and boisterous warriors, it was able to sneakily grab one of the bottles they were drinking from and see what everyone was drinking.

As it tried sneaking out with the bottle, one of the rosy-skinned patrons spotted Ghost and yelled out, "H-h-h-heeeeey! I-I thiiiiiink I ssheee a grimmmm making offfff with one of your bottlessssss Timmy!"

The man behind him said, "Hhholllly shhhieeet, I thinkkk this idiottt's right 'bouut something. Yo Timmmy, some grimmmm's stealin' yer booze!"

A man behind the counter who looks A LOT more composed than everyone else in this building combined growled, "There are no grimm in my bar. You're drunk."

Ghost saw this as an opportunity to get out.

"Ohshititsgettingaway!" The second man somehow managed to say.

"That's it, you two had enough. Don't need you scaring away my customers. Now get out or I'll throw you out!"

"Buuuuuuuuut timmmmy! The boooze!"

"OUT!"

"Finnne then, I'llll take my money somewheeeere else." The first drunk said.

"Meee toooooooooo. You jjust lost a ccustommmmeer fer liiiiife Timmmmy."

Both drunks didn't even walk two steps before falling over completely cold. Timmy sighed and began dragging the two out of there.

Ghost saw this chance to finally get out and it was able to sneak out of the bar undetected. Finally, it can taste what the others have been drinking this whole time. Must be good if they're all drinking it like its the end of the world. Ghost absorbed some of the so-called, 'Booze', and if it had a mouth, it would instantly spit it out. Ghost absolutely HATED this taste and threw the bottle on the ground in disgust. How could anyone drink this?

After that little encounter, it noticed a bird with black feathers watching Ghost. Ghost waved at the bird and it soon flew away in the distance. Ghost had decided to go back to Shelly's house before she got worried.

Ghost quickly went back into the house and was sitting on the couch. The vessel heard the beeping of the oven and saw Shelly pull something out. It smelled delicious. Ghost quickly ran up to Shelly and jumped onto the counter to see what that heavenly smell was. Shelly smiled when she saw Ghost eagerly watch her put the apple pie on the counter and said, "Thanks for being patient. Here's some apple pie, hope you enjoy!"

Shelly began cutting up the pie and grabbed a plate for Ghost and herself. Both of them sat on the table and began eating the apple pie. Ghost absorbed a small piece of the apple pie and absolutely loved it. Completely washed out that terrible bitter taste from earlier, that's for sure. Shelly watched Ghost absorb the pie and she noticed a strange smell coming from Ghost.

"Wait, why do you smell like beer? Did you go outside while I was baking this?"

Ghost shook its head.

"Don't lie to me. I can smell the alcohol on your... mask thing."

Ghost reluctantly shook its head and Shelly sighed in disappointment, "Well, at least nobody is breaking down my doors to get to you. Still, you shouldn't do that. You could've gotten hurt if someone thought you were a grimm, then people would get scared, and actual grimm would be attracted to the panic, and come invade our town and no one wants that. Okay?"

Ghost nodded its head and Shelly said, "Good. It should be safe to go back out at night. You'll just need to worry about the all guards patrolling town." Ghost nodded once again and Shelly smiled. They continued having some more pie and after the pie was gone, Shelly went on the couch and began doing homework. Ghost decided to hang out with her some more before night fell.

After a few hours of sitting together and watching TV, Ghost and Shelly said goodbye to each other when the dark night sky replaced the orange evening. Ghost stealthfully navigated through the town and began to take note of the landmarks. Its dark body perfectly camouflaged into the darkness and it was able to explore the town more freely. Ghost saw many things like a blacksmith shop, a shop that sells colorful powder called Dust, and a statue of a figure known as _The Spring Maiden_. After Ghost's exploration itch was satisfied, Ghost scaled the walls and went back to the forest where its siblings roamed.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey there and thanks for reading to the end of this chapter. Thank you to the people who've followed, favorited, and reviewed the story! I really appreciate that. Anyway, time to respond to the reviews from the last chapter.**

_**...**_

**ZobbleStone: Thanks man, I try my best to spellcheck these chapters. Grammarly helps a lot but writing it seems to hate it when I write grimm in lowercase and it drives me insane. Also, I do agree that the knight and all other vessels are pure Void, but what else would the bugs of Hallownest call the knight? That was just my justification for the NPCs to call ****_the knight _****'bug'.**

**Student (Guest): Yay, Student reviewed my story! Anyway, now with the benefit of hindsight, I now see that 14 is an extremely low number and I've made edits to fix that, thanks for that. Also, to answer your first question about the Hollow Tribe's name, that's just a placeholder name until I thought of something better. Second, I'm going to have the vessels convey their emotions and thoughts like charades or have them express their emotions with the body movement. Third, I like the name for the Hollow Knight, but I don't think anyone will know that the vessels were royalty or were even born to any sentient being in the first place. Also, I really like your idea for a Crystal Guardian Vessel and I've already figured out how to implement that. I'm just not comfortable naming the vessel after a horrific tragedy.**

_**...**_

**That's all for now everyone. If you have an idea for an Original Character, critiques, or questions, put it in a review or PM if you prefer. Alright, that's it for now, see ya'll next time I update this story.**


	3. Chapter 3: The Blind Worm Burrow

**Chapter 3: The Blind Worm Burrow**

* * *

The night was quiet all things considered. It was the first time it had ever the night sky and it was just content lying on the ground looking at the strange sparkles in the sky. This vessel likes to lounge around in the trees and just relax. It had no reason to explore, the others were doing just fine and the second eldest told them they could do whatever they wanted. The vessel wanted to relax, so it's doing just that.

_**...**_

A fearsome monster growled ferociously at the brave vessel who dared attack it. This monster looked strangely familiar to the large brown-furred creatures its been fighting, but it has a lot more armor and power. It didn't matter to the vessel though, this was an exhilarating fight and much more fun than fighting the wild bugs that occasionally jumped them while exploring.

The large beast was surprisingly agile despite its heavy size and armor. The vessel needed to cut the beast at the precise angle if it wanted to hurt it and with one last slash, the beast was done. The vessel tried to pull off its mask as a trophy but was severely disappointed when its entire body began to turn to ash. Now how was it going to brag to its siblings?

_**...**_

Curiosity was the only thing this vessel felt ever since they got out of Hallownest. What were these towering structures? Why were there monsters of darkness? And the most recent question it has been asking, what are these colorful crystals it had found? It had found these crystals after going inside what it thought was a normal cave but looked like a whole new cave system when it walked deeper into the cave.

The crystals did absolutely nothing when it touched them, but when it focused, the yellow crystal the vessel was holding was absorbed into the vessel and instantly shot out a bolt of electricity without warning. There were many types of crystals, all with a varying degree of size, shape, and color. It decided to do a little experimentation with these crystals. What else was it going to do after with what just happened?

Unfortunately for the vessel, it could just cast two more spells before running out soul and decided to take two of the brightest crystals it can find more maximum entertainment. The vessel very much liked the pretty lights. It first tried out a small red crystal and it spits out a gouge of fire. Unfortunately, it hit some of the crystals and the ensuing explosion caused a cave-in, blocking out the vessel's only known entrance. As unfortunate as it was, it needed to find a new way out of this cave system and it might as well do some exploring while it was at it.

_**...**_

Ghost was going back to the forest and as it walked, it was checking up on its siblings. Its siblings back in Hallownest are doing quite well for themselves. Many of them have jobs like blacksmiths, merchants, or explorers. When Ghost was checking up on its family in the forest, they seem to have a good time exploring, relaxing, or experimenting with their environment. Some things concerned Ghost though.

One of its siblings, the one called Shadow, was fighting the grimm and absorbing the black ooze from them. Ghost had didn't want its sibling to become corrupted and start hurting innocent people, so it decided to check up on Shadow.

As Ghost wandered the forest, it was thinking about the black ooze that it absorbed earlier today. It was strange and made Ghost want to do bad things. It seemed to have expelled the black ooze by casting a spell and purging all the corrupted soul from its body. Ghost remembers that Shadow was actively fighting both the wildlife and the grimm, it just hopes that Shadow was some soul left to purge. After checking where Shadow was, it saw that it was close and was just in eyeshot of Shadow. It seemed to be fighting more grimm again and Ghost rushed in to help.

Ghost rushed into action by firing off a blast of soul right onto one of the creatures. It quickly fell to the ground, but instead of its ashes spreading to the winds, Shadow was absorbing them.

That was when Shadow was getting more feral and erratic. Almost all of its poise and posture was gone in favor of raw and savage strength. It stabbed the grimm repeatedly in the chest.

Shadow began to grow more armor on its void body and a red glow was beginning to form in its empty eyes. Ghost saw that its sibling was turning into one of those monsters and it didn't want to lose family on the first night.

Ghost quickly ran up to the corrupted vessel to transfer its untainted soul into Shadow. Ghost quickly took control of Shadow's body and began to expel the corruption by firing off spells left and right. Soon its armor was gone and Ghost could feel its corruption fading away. Ghost gave back control to Shadow and saw that its eyes red glow was fading away. Shadow soon stood back up and asked its sibling, _"What happened?"_

Ghost replied with, _"I don't know, but it has something to do with those monsters you've been fighting. It happened to me too but I was able to purge the corruption. I'm sorry for taking control of you."_

Shadow shook its head, _"No, thank you for saving me."_

_"You're welcome, but don't fight those things unless you have to, okay?"_

Shadow nodded and said, _"Don't worry, I won't. Thanks again."_

Ghost and Shadow soon bowed to each other and went off their separate ways. That's when Ghost began climbing on top of a tree to safely watch its siblings.

As it looked through the eyes of its siblings, Ghost began to take notes and record on what Ghost had learned so it can share it with the others. The first interesting thing it saw was that the grimm wasn't always aggressive towards its siblings. For the vessels who had no soul, the grimm completely ignored them unless provoked. Some vessels were even safely riding them if they were able to sneak on their backs.

Ghost quickly ordered every vessel to not attack the grimm if they don't have soul. If they do, they need to purge ALL of their soul before they become corrupted. It seems that the more soul a vessel has, the slower it will corrupt them. Ghost doesn't want the vessels to test out if they can purge the corruption without any soul though.

After Ghost had sent that message to everyone, it looks like they're avoiding the grimm and not picking a fight with them. Ghost was relieved that everyone was listening and thinks that its the fact that Ghost has the Void Heart. As Ghost was looking over its siblings, it saw through the eyes of a sibling that was trapped in the darkness. It was surrounded by bright and colorful crystals, similar in color to the Dust that Ghost saw in town. The vessel barely had enough soul and it looks like it's stuck down there.

Not wanting to leave behind a sibling, Ghost began searching for its lost sibling and saw the entrance of a cave. As it went deeper into the cave, many rocks were blocking the vessel's path. Ghost charged up a few Great Slashes and the rocks were quickly destroyed. Ghost quickly took out its Lumafly Lantern to illuminate its path. It saw many colorful crystals and decided to pick some of them up for the future. They looked valuable enough to sell or at the very least, a nice looking souvenir.

As it went deeper into the caves, the tunnels began to become more labyrinthian and Ghost was having a hard time tracking its sibling down. Some tunnels lead to dead ends, while others lead to more and more paths that its sibling possibly could've gone in. Some bats would swarm Ghost from above the ceiling, but they would all be cut down before they could even get a scratch on Ghost.

Ghost decided to check up on its lost sibling and saw that it was near a large and empty chasm. This effectively trapped Ghost's sibling at this location and Ghost quickly told its sibling to stay there and that it'll be here soon. The sibling replied with an, _"Okay," _and was content sitting near the edge of the ravine, its stubby legs dangling over it. Good, at least Ghost knew where its sibling was now.

As it went deeper, Ghost soon entered a much more open area and Ghost was having memories back in Hallownest when it saw this. Ghost was treading very carefully in this room and it could barely relax while walking in this room. When Ghost got near the exit to the room, the ground was shaking but Ghost managed to hold its ground and four worm-like grimm popped out of the ground.

All four of them let out a might screech and stalactites began to fall from the ceiling. Ghost was able to react quickly enough and hit four of the stalactites right into the one of the worm's weak spot, killing it almost instantly. Soon, boulders fell conveniently right in front of both exits out of the room and trapped Ghost inside with the grimm.

The three remaining worms burrowed underground and Ghost was standing still, waiting for the worms to reemerge. At just the right time, one of the worms popped right out of the ground just as Ghost predicted and the vessel jumped high up into the air.

It soon cast a Descending Dark spell and squished the worm. Ghost quickly moved away from the black ooze until it also evaporated into nothingness. At least Ghost knows that the black ooze wasn't permanent now.

As Ghost waited for the worms to show themselves, it quickly absorbed an apple to fill up its soul vessel. It wasn't much, but it gave Ghost just enough to cast one more spell. Both worms spit acid right onto Ghost's shell, but thanks to Isma's Tear, it was immune to the effects of acid.

It soon fired off a blast of Shade Soul right at the worm and it kills it, spurting out its acidic blood in a last-ditch attempt to kill Ghost.

Now with no soul left, Ghost will need to find a way to kill the last worm without getting near it. It looks around for anything it can throw it at. With nothing else to fight it with, Ghost begins to destroy the boulder blocking the exit.

With one Great Slash, it did some damage to the boulder, but not much. Ghost then remembers that these grimm spit acid and when the worm reemerges again, Ghost dodged its acid attack and it hit the boulder.

The boulder began to melt and after a few more acid attacks, the boulder was nearly destroyed and with one last Great Slash, it was destroyed.

Ghost could hear the worm burrowing back into the ground to pursue Ghost, but there were luckily some bats nearby to absorb soul from. Ghost quickly killed the bats and could feel its soul vessel getting enough soul for one last spell.

The worm soon popped out of the ground, leaping towards Ghost. After aiming properly, Ghost cast its Shade Soul right into the worm's open mouth. The entire blast went through the worm's mouth, the Shade Soul completely destroying its inside.

The grimm died and was melting away in a black acidic puddle. Ghost ran away from the ooze and started looking for its lost sibling again.

_**A few hours later...**_

Hours had passed as Ghost wandered the cave. It luckily didn't need to fight any grimm anymore, but it didn't make the tunnels any less confusing to navigate. But after much exploring and backtracking later, it finally found its sibling. It was lying down and it looked like it was 'asleep'. Ghost tapped its sibling on its shell and it slowly woke back up.

_"What took you so long? I was waiting here forever?" _Its sibling asked.

Ghost shrugged and replied, _"Sorry about that. There were a lot of tunnels and I didn't know which way to go."_

_"Yeah, I didn't know where I was going either. That's how I ended up here. I wonder what's on the other side of the chasm."_

Ghost was thinking about something. Could Ghost give its siblings some of its power? To be honest, Ghost was curious to see what's at the end of the chasm and wanted to explore some more. Its been here for hours, so it might as well explore the whole place.

_"Do you have any fruit with you? Apples are preferable. I want to try something."_

_"Apples?"_

_"They're red fruits."_

_"... Oh! These ones?"_

Its sibling took out a few red fruits, but they look nothing like apples. They were a lot smaller and had its seeds showing on the outside.

_"These are my favorites. I found them in a basket while exploring. I saw this when a strange tiny red creature walking down the path, but when I went to it to say hi, it ran off! That's when I found these fruits."_

They weren't apples but its sibling really liked them, so Ghost decided to try them. Ghost took a strawberry from its sibling's hand, _"Just don't absorb the green thing. They don't taste very good."_

Ghost nodded and began to absorb them. They were delicious, but Ghost still liked the apples better. Still, it restored some of its soul and after two more of these fruits, it had enough for one spell.

Ghost held its sibling's hand and began to focus Ghost began to focus its soul. It felt like it was working and Ghost was transferring some of the powers the Crystal Heart to its sibling.

As its powers were being, the sibling's shell began acting strange. Its white ceramic-like material began to turn into a clear purple crystal. Its Void body also began to form crystals and now its siblings had the powers of the Crystal Heart.

Ghost began to examine its sibling's new form and it confused Ghost to no end. Why didn't this happen to Ghost when it absorbed the Crystal Heart? Was it because it absorbed other items? Whatever it was, it looks like the Crystal Heart completely changed its sibling's appearance and possibly powers.

_"Do you have a name?"_

_"No, the others haven't thought of one for me yet."_

_"Oh. How about I call you... Gem?"_

Ghost's sibling was thinking about it and said, _"Okay! I like that name!"_

_"Okay Gem, now let's cross the chasm, okay?"_

The newly named Gem nodded and had a good understanding of its powers already. It began to charge up its Crystal Heart and it soon began flying across the entire chasm. It reached the other side in a matter of seconds and Ghost began to charge up its own super dash.

It began focusing its Crystal Heart, but nothing happened. It tried over and over, but it couldn't do it. That was when Ghost realized that its Crystal Heart was completely transferred to Gem. Ghost was thinking about what should it do. It was considering taking back the Crystal Heart, but it looks like Gem has a lot more potential now. In the end, Ghost contacted Gem to come and carry Ghost to the other side. Gem agreed and carried Ghost to the other side of the chasm.

On the other side, there was the entrance of a very large tunnel, bigger than either of them had ever seen in the burrow so far. Both Ghost and Gem walked into the tunnel together and saw that there was a large hole in the ground. Neither of them could see the bottom of the hole and when they dropped a rock in it, they could barely hear the rock hit the ground.

Their curiosity got the better of them and they both jumped down into the hole. It was a long way down and as they descended, the colorful crystals from before began to become more common the deeper they fell. When they finally got to the bottom, there were extremely large crystals all around them. Ghost and Gem were exploring this new area at their leisure, carrying as much as these crystals as they can.

Gem realized that it can absorb the colorful crystals without using any soul and was curious to see what would happen. It quickly absorbed a bright crystal and it didn't burst out in flames or began spewing lightning bolts all around itself. But it felt strange when it absorbed the crystal. The color of its new shell began to change into the same color the crystal was. Gem began to feel hot and when it touched its shell, its hand sizzled when it touched its shell. Gem quickly got its hand away from its shell and looked at its reflection from a clear crystal. It was a strange sensation and Gem was still coping with its new form.

Back with Ghost, the vessel was sitting down on top of a large crystal and drawing a map for the area. Thank goodness Ghost has a photographic memory, or they'd be lost here for hours. After it was done drawing the map, the ground began to rumble and shake. Ghost fell off the crystal it was sitting on and fell right on its face. Ghost tried to get itself back up, but the ground was shaking too violently for it to do so. Soon, the ground erupted and out came a giant worm grimm.

The gigantic monster doesn't seem to notice Ghost and Gem yet. They don't have any soul, so that giant monster wasn't going to attack them any time soon. The worm was looking around the room and found the largest crystal in the room. It soon began to attach its mouth onto the large blue crystal and Ghost could its underbelly glowing a faint light blue. Ghost is having a bad feeling about this and was contemplating on if it should leave this grimm alone.

What if it ever decided to leave this burrow? That would spell catastrophe for everyone! Especially for that small town Ghost had discovered. Ghost found Gem trying to run away from the grimm, but Ghost stopped Gem from running. With a look at each other's empty eyes, they knew what needs to be done. Ghost takes out his nail and summons Grimmchild to its side. Gem's crystal body began to quietly hum louder and louder.

**_The Blind Wyrm_**

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey everyone, thanks for reading to the end of this chapter. Hope you didn't wait too long and I hope you like this chapter. Anyway, I want to make a list of all the powers and abilities Ghost and the other vessels have. It saves me the time on telling you guys what powers they have and it'll serve as a reminder for myself on what these vessels are capable of. I'm also thinking about editing all the vessel dialogue, I want them to have a harder time speaking since they've never been given the chance to speak before. Here are a few examples:**

_**"Dark monsters... Don't fight... Evil corruption..."**_

_**"Help...! Stuck...! Monsters...!"**_

_**"Apple pie...? No...? More for me..."**_

**I don't know, tell me how you think about it in a review. But right now, let's respond to some reviews.**

_**...**_

**a54321: Glad you enjoy and I can't wait to write the rest of this fanfic. I've got a lot of planned for Ghost and its family and I can't wait to finally write it out.**

**Rook435: Happy that I was able to win you over with the last chapter! Unfortunately, characters like Hornet won't be joining Ghost and their siblings on their adventures. Plus, she's having her own little adventure and I want to see how it goes. I just know Hollow Knight: Silksong is going to be amazing. Also, I'm going to spell GRIMM (the RWBY monsters) as 'grimm'. The GRIMM from Hollow Knight will be spelled as 'Grimm'.**

**Student (Guest): No worries man, I often name characters before looking up what their names actually mean. Also, I love that animatic and I thought it was hilarious, both the artwork and the actual comedy routine. To answer your question about the Dream Nail, I've always thought it had four abilities that Ghost could use at will: siphoning soul, collecting essence, read the thoughts of the target, and the ability to enter dreams. To answer your question, I think the Dream Nail needs to pierce the enemy to collect soul, hence why you only collect 33 soul. Since aura is basically a shield, the Dream Nail wouldn't have any problem siphoning soul from anyone who has aura. Lastly, there are more than just crows wandering out in the forests.**

**ultima-owner: Yep, something much worse will happen, much worse...**

**Kopul: Thank you!**

**Boomerito: Thanks, I'm actually just surprised that nobody wrote about this yet.**

**Milo S Darek: Thanks for the follow and I will. I can just imagine the interactions between Ghost and Zwei now.**

**akiranakamuranura: Thanks and I want to stand out more from the other fanfics. I just feel like there are way too many of them who just plop the character straight into the intro of RWBY.**

_**...**_

**Alright everyone, now that I've responded to all the reviews, here's a hopefully comprehensive list of the abilities of Ghost and the other vessels. Some will remain a surprise in the future. I'll update this list as the tribe grows and when certain vessels get new powers.**

_**...**_

**_Ghost's Unique Powers_****  
-Mind Control (Take manual control over any Void entity)  
-Power Transfer (Transfer any power Ghost has to any entity of its choosing)  
-Focus Transfer (Focus any soul Ghost has and give it to others)  
-Void Heart (Unifies the void under the bearer's will. See through the eyes of any Void entity and give them any command)**  
**-Monarch Wings  
-Isma's Tear  
-Dream Gate  
-Cyclone Slash  
-Dash Slash  
-Great Slash**

**_The Hollow Knight's Unique Powers_****  
-Focus Explosion  
-Void Tendrils  
-Teleportation  
-Shining Daggers  
-Light Lances**

**_Gem's Unique Powers_****  
-Crystal Heart  
-Laser Beam  
-Dust Absorption  
-Dust Powered Laser Beams (Activated when elemental dust is absorbed, example: absorbing fire dust gives grants heat rays)**

_**Vessel Powers  
**_**-Focus Absorption (The power to absorb any organic mass, certain items do certain things. Food requires no soul to absorb and gives a small amount of soul, absorbing dust requires one charge of soul to absorb.)  
-Focus Healing  
-Shade Soul  
-Shade Cloak  
-Descending Dark  
-Abyss Shriek  
-Mantis Claw**


	4. Rewrite Announcement

**Hey there everyone.**

**I know it has been a long time since I've uploaded and I know this isn't the kind of update you want to see.**

**But I have problems with this story.**

**I am not a patient person and I've hated how I never got to the ACTUALLY interesting part and show the second half of this crossover: RWBY.**

**With this new story, I want to quickly get to the point and finally write out the stuff I've been dying to write down.**

**I also hated the Grimm corruption weakness and I realized I wrote myself into a corner. How could the vessels fight the Grimm if they can't even hit them with their nails? They can't just keep blasting the Grimm with soul and THEY CAN'T GET ANY SOUL FROM THE GRIMM BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ANY AND THEY'LL BECOME CORRUPTED IF THEY DO!**

**As I said, wrote myself into a corner there.**

**I'll be setting clear rules in the new fanfic at the end of the first chapter so I don't give myself an aneurysm trying to write fight scenes and to tell you what you should expect from the fights in the future.**

**Also as a warning, I don't know how to write fight scenes.**

**That's why there was such a HUGE delay in chapter 4. **

**Anyways, I don't have an excuse for being this late for a chapter. I keep on getting distracted by video games and schoolwork and whenever I do try to work on this fic, it's always trying to figure out how Ghost and Gem are going to kill the Blind Wyrm.**

**I hope you forgive me on this crappy update and I hope you'll read the rewrite. It'll come out on February 8th, 2020.**


End file.
